The food service industry has been struggling with a chronic lack of workers and increases in hourly wages as a result. The number of foreign workers is expected to grow due to the amended Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, which took effect on April 1, 2019.

However, study support services for the skill tests have been lacking despite the difficulty of the tests for many foreign persons.

The aim of providing study support services is to help benefit both workers and employers, resolving the issues confronting each group.

[Reference] Free online learning service for Food Service Skills Measurement Test started –study support service to accept more foreign workers in the food service industry

The “FJS school” to be opened on April, 1 at Minato ward conducts courses for practical Japanese at work, customer service, literacy, manners, and cultural knowledge besides the regular Japanese language training for foreign staff working on specified skills visa.

The foreign students who have enrolled in the school and who are in search of a job have an “Employment guarantee” and besides creating a curriculum to have industry-ready recruits, features of each industry, job hunting schedule, interview manners would be taught thereby having a total backup of employment.

In addition, a service whereby the instructors can make business trips as per the industry-type to companies and stores across the country as per the company requirements is also made available so that the working foreign staff can undergo the “FJS school” training.

Foreigners who want a know-how on working in Japan, and those willing to gain skills as immediate work force can opt for the “FJS school” training program.

[Web site] Foreigners Job-hunting Support Center “FJS”

They are preparing to start registration in late March and conduct the exam on Thursday April 25 at exam centers in both Tokyo and Osaka. They will then announce the results mid-May. The exam will also be available to take in Hanoi, Vietnam, although they have not announced the exact dates for the overseas location exams yet. The Organization for Technical Skill Assessment of Foreign Workers in the Food Industry is in charge of conducting this exam.

As the restaurant industry is qualified to accept workers under the new residency visa, food service companies are allowed to hire foreign workers with the new Type 1 Visas which can be renewed for 5 years.

JF released the original learning materials on their website for potential applicants. The resources are divided into 3 fields: food safety management, food and drink preparation, and service related matters. Since the exam covers topics in these fields, it would be useful to focus on these areas if you’re interested in getting this qualification.

[Reference] Japan Food Service Association (JF): Initiative to accept foreign workers

Under this law, the certification of placement agencies for foreign workers, which are tasked with supporting the placement of foreign residents in Japan, will be limited to those who have no records of offenses under Labor Standards Acts. To be more specific, certification as an authorized organization will not be granted if any record of an offense has been found less than 5 years from the date of registration. An agency’s registration will be revoked if the violation occurs after its registration.

Placement agencies are responsible for supporting companies who are willing to accept foreign workers by providing appropriate assistance and guidance on employment and life support planning. Upon registration, they are required to receive certification by the Immigration and Residency Control Agency, which will begin operations in April.

This new visa status law and the revised immigration control law will be in effect from April 1st.

According to the survey, companies considering the employment of foreigners with primary objective of securing global human resources, and foreigners considering employment in Japan expecting good human relations, are looking out for a comfortable work environment.

In a “Survey on companies considering employment of foreigners”, about 90% of companies that have hired foreigners in the past are considering recruitment of foreigners again. Therefore, 54.4% of companies intend to “Secure human resources who can speak languages other than Japanese”, and 50.6% said that they want to secure resources to “Reduce the problem of labor shortage”.

In the next question, when asked about “What companies seek from foreign employees?”, “Diligence” was highest with 73.4% and “Have humor” was lowest with 22.8%. Also, when asked “What attributes do you seek in foreigners?”, 80% and above said that they seek “Sincere and honest people” and 19.0% said that they seek “Optimism”. When asked about “Payment of monthly salary”, most of them replied “200000 yen and above” accounting for 19.7%.

On the contrary, in a “Survey on foreigners considering employment in Japan”, a trend different from the companies was observed. When asked about “The type of job one seeks in Japan”, “Restaurant” was at number one place with 47.2%, followed by “Language teacher” with 46.1%, “Hotel line” with 45.0%. It is estimated that industries where one can use English or native language are popular.

When enquired about “What are you looking for primarily in work environment?”, “Good interpersonal relationships” was on top with 72.1% and “No overtime” was 29.8%. Among them, the ratio of Europeans asking for “No overtime” was high with 46.9% which was highest as compared to other nationals.

When enquired about the “Expected monthly income”, almost 22.1% said that they expect “200000 yen or more” which was the highest followed by “180000~200000 yen” which was 11.7%. Regarding the monthly income, it was observed that there was not much difference in the expected payment as compared to the payment mentioned by companies considering foreign recruitment.

Also, regarding the “Desired working hours”, more than 40% said that they are willing to work for “8 hours” which was on top. Thus, it is speculated that foreigners in Japan are willing to work for fulltime and earn a stable income.
This survey was conducted on 79 executives of companies using “JobBoard” which is a job posting site for foreigners operated on home page of the same association (JAWHM) and on 436 foreigners.

The “Job offer rate” for college students graduating in 2020 was 5.8% as of February 1, showing an increase of 1.3% than the 2019 graduates the same month. The “Job hunting rate” of college students graduating in 2020 is 87.5% as of February 1, showing an increase of 1.9% as compared to 2019 graduates the same month.

Moreover, there is an increase in respondents saying that “They have not yet decided” the “Industry type”, “Job type” and “Employee size” etc. for “Job seeking preferences”. The “Industry type” stands at 12.4% with 1.2% increase, “Job type” at 17.7% with 1.4% increase, and “Employee size” at 46.6% with 5.1% increase as compared to previous year.

Among them, the “Most preferred industry” is “Information and service industry” on top with 64.6% showing a decrease of 1.7% as compared to last year, followed by “Manufacturing industry” on 45.9% showing a decrease of 4.7% as compared to previous year, and “Distribution operations” on 20.4% showing a decrease of 4.6% as compared to previous year.

Among the “Most preferred jobs”, “Clerical staff related jobs” was on top with 37.6% showing an increase of 0.9% as compared to previous year, followed by “Product planning/ Marketing related jobs” on 33.9% showing a decrease of 5.3% as compared to previous year, and “Sales related jobs” on 32.7% with a decrease of 1.4% as compared to previous year.

Moreover, regarding the preferred “Employee size”, there is a tremendous decrease in the percentage of applicants aspiring for large companies with “1000~4999 people” or “5000 plus people” with decrease of 6.8% and 3.6% respectively as compared to previous year.
In an aggregate data for “Preferences for participation in internship till end of January”, almost 80% of the students said that they do participate in internship. The participation period was mostly “one day” and after participating in internship they were motivated to join the company.

If we see the “Job offer rate” and “Job hunting rate” for 2020 graduate collage students as per the field of specialization, the “Job offer rate” for Arts students was 6.5% with increase of 2.0% as compared to previous year and “Job hunting rate” was 90.0% with increase of 0.5% as compared to previous year. However, the “Job offer rate” for Science students was 4.2% with a decrease of 0.5% as compared to previous year and “Job hunting rate” was 82.1% with a decrease of 4.8% as compared to previous year.
If categorized according to gender, the “Job offer rate” for men was 5.9% with an increase of 0.6% than the previous year and “Job hunting rate” was 88.3% with an increase of 2.8%. On the other hand, the “Job offer rate” for women was 5.5% with an increase of 2.0% than the previous year and “Job hunting rate” was 86.6% with an increase of 0.9%.

Region-wise, “Job offer rate” for Kanto was 7.4% with 0.7% increase than the previous year and “Job hunting rate” was 92.5% with 1.5% increase. Chubu accounted for 6.6% in “Job offer rate” with increase of 5.8% than the previous year and “Job hunting rate” was 79.2% with a decrease of 0.3%. Kinki’s “Job offer rate” was 3.9% with decrease of 0.5% than the previous year and “Job hunting rate” was 87.8% with increase of 4.4% than the previous year. In other areas, the “Job offer rate” was 4.3% with increase of 0.6% than the previous year and “Job hunting rate” was at 84.5% with an increase of 1.2%.

［Reference］ “Unofficial list as of February 1, 2019” Survey on job hunting process (2020 graduates) /Press release /Recruit Career

This change aims to prevent foreigners working in Japan from abusing the health insurance program. The revised Health Insurance Law is scheduled to take effect in April 2020.

The current health insurance law does not require the condition that workers’ dependents reside in Japan, therefore, foreign workers’ dependent family members who are residing abroad are also covered under the current programs.

However, the misuse of the health insurance program has been a concern, in part, because of the difficulty in verifying whether the worker is actually the primary provider for his/her family abroad or not. The government altered its policy on health insurance due to the upcoming new work visa status that comes into effect in April, a change that is expected to bring more foreign workers to Japan.

The availability of health insurance coverage for family members who reside in the worker’s home country has been one of the most attractive aspects for foreigners coming to work in Japan. However, under the proposed change, this benefit will no longer be available.

Though it is potentially disappointing news for foreign workers in Japan, considering the nation’s increasing financial constraints on social security due to the low birth rate, the decision was needed to continue welcoming more foreigners to work in Japan for years to come.

CO-WELL also owns the Vietnamese corporation CO-WELL ASIA Co.,LTD., which is a group subsidiary. It has been working in offshore development for around 8 years. Put together, both CO-WELL in Japan and CO-WELL ASIA have grown to over 480 employees.

CO-WELL is offering a recruiting support service that takes advantage of the company’s know-how regarding the hiring of IT technicians as well as technical education. They also have knowledge about systems of objective evaluation of resources and technical ability. CO-WELL has gained a lot of knowledge of these subjects through its business expansion.

As CO-WELL’s first big step into recruitment support services, the company is offering paid recruitment services which introduce talented Japanese and Vietnamese engineers to Japanese companies.

Since CO-WELL is a global IT solutions company which undertakes offshore development for major and growing companies, they have access to job postings that aren’t publicly available. So, one of their strong points is their ability to introduce many kinds of positions. Job hunters can utilize their strengths and find jobs at companies that have a lot of room for growth.

[Website] Will and Way
[Website] Will and Way Engineer Page

It is expected that the acceptance of foreign nationals with certain expertise and skills would increase with the new residence status established in the revised Immigration Control Act that would be implemented from April 2019. However, as the recruiting companies, the necessities like improvement of work environment to facilitate ease in work irrespective of nationality or reforms for awareness within the company or Human resource development policy etc. would increase more than ever and handling such necessities or preparedness might be challenging.

The Personnel Securing Support Service for foreign nationals utilizes the expertise of Pasona Group having 35 plus years of experience dealing overseas and provides various menus like procedure for obtaining residence status, life support, cross-cultural training to increase mutual understanding between foreign nationals and Japanese employees.

Moreover, introductory counselling can be provided for understanding and analyzing the current situation and problems of the company and customizing it to provide the best suited service for resolving the issues according to the company.

Although it is difficult to follow only companies employing foreign nationals, the menu includes various factors for securing foreign personnel like life support, cross culture training, community formation etc. Thus, it proves to be an assuring service for both the companies expecting foreign employees to work for long term and foreign nationals who are concerned about employment in Japan.

［Reference］ Total support right from acceptance to securing job of foreign nationals who are expected to increase with “Amended Immigration Control Act”　Pasona’s “Personnel Securing Support Service for foreign nationals” available from April

However, the migration data of foreign residents shows that Tokyo surprisingly had negative net-migration. The data showed that due to ex-pat residents moving out of Tokyo, there are 9 prefectures with positive net-migration. Some of these are neighbor prefectures to Tokyo such as Saitama, Kanagawa, Chiba, Gunma; the remaining 5 being Hokkaido, Mie, Shizuoka, Yamagata and Niigata, all non-Kanto prefectures.

Made by using the data from Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication: Annual Report on Internal Migration in 2018

These results might be attributed to the efforts of those non-Kanto prefectures to accommodate Japanese inbound tourism, including support systems established by prefectural governments to help local tourism-focused companies accept foreign workers. Local companies have also established initiatives to hire more foreign students.

For example, Niigata Prefectural Government has outsourced to the Niigata Notary Public Association to set up an employment support center for foreign workers with the intention of providing appropriate guidance and assistance to local companies who wish to accept more foreign workers.

Shiga Prefectural Government is also taking a proactive support stance towards accepting foreign workers and residents by not only providing multilingual services but also developing translation and multilingual guidelines which also recommends the use of Easy Japanese (Yasashii Nihongo) for faster and more effective communication in emergency situations.

While many technical and Japanese language institutes for foreigners are found in the Tokyo area, more and more private and public organizations outside of Tokyo are willing to accept foreign workers with the hope of addressing their decreasing populations. If you are studying in Japan and wondering where to go after graduation, finding a job in a non-Kanto prefecture could be a viable option, instead of going back home or getting a job in Tokyo.

[Reference] Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication: Annual Report on Internal Migration in 2018